why does nobody like hockey?

Question

hockey is a great sport i love it and can you im me if you answer

Answer 1

Actually, the popularity of hockey has been pretty much the same since the lockout. So the person that commented and said that is wrong! But that is beside the point. Sorry for being nit-picky. Here is the problem...

1. To REALLY get popular, it really helps if people have actually played the sport. The most diehard fans are usually the guys who played it as a kid. The problem is threefold on this point. First, the game is very costly. Any old regular Joe cannot afford all the equipment. Second, maintaining an arena is expensive as well. So every city does not have one available. Third, part of the country lives in the south. Not a lot of ice to skate on. So kids simply do not get enough exposure to it at a young age, so it is difficult for the game to stick. Take sports like soccer, football, and basketball as counter-examples. All you need is a ball and a goal, and you're all set for a dozen or more kids to play. Anyone anywhere can do it.

2. Until 1967, there were only 6 NHL teams. Then there were only 12, mostly in weird places. Until the 1990s, there were only 24. The game has expanded a lot since then, but it takes time for the sport to really stick and become a part of the culture, which is necessary for the popularity to rise. It takes time. A LOT of time.

3. Competition is steep. Most people simply do not have the time to follow every single sport out there every second of the day. Factor in the above issues, and you've got people who simply do not have time for hockey. Basketball and football take up enough of their time already during the hockey season. The popularity of a lot of other sports needs to decrease for some people to pick up another sport, and that simply is not happening for most.

4. The NHL's advertising and promotional abilities need a serious upgrade. Their commercials kind of suck. They have a terrible tv deal. They simply need better exposure. They could do a lot to move in the right direction on that front by firing that feeble, useless commissioner they have. He sucks, and he is NOT making the sport any better. He simply is not doing his job.

5. All that said, a lot of people DO like hockey. I propose, in fact, that the people who do love hockey more than other people love their sport of choice, with maybe the exception of foreign soccer fans. I don't think that us fans who DO love hockey get enough credit. We're here. The league just needs to do a better job of finding us.

p.s. I think it is hilarious that so many people say that the game cannot be supported in cities in the south. In the past three years, you know who has the best attendance record? Montreal is #1. Second place goes to TAMPA. Fact. Hockey has also been a huge success in Dallas and San Jose as well. Meanwhile, it failed in Quebec and Winnipeg. The location is not what matters. The success of the team makes the difference. The places where hockey has been successful for the longest have the best fan bases. This takes time, as well as success. If Nashville wins the Cup, they'll start to attract more fans, but only their long term success will make a long term difference. If Edmonton continues to suck more years than not (last year was obviously a fluke), then they'll be the Houston Oilers before you know it. Location has nothing to do with it.

Answer 2

There are loads of people that like hockey. Not nearly as many as those that like football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf and a few others. There are several reasons for this:
One is that many people cannot skate, which makes the game immediately foreign to them. Two is that the game is impossible to watch if you do not know the rules. Three is that the cost to attend at the NHL level is way to high, along with the concession costs. Hockey is a sport that you have to learn to be able to really appreciate. If you understand the game, it is a fascinating high speed hard hitting sport that is fun and exciting to watch.
Those in charge of big league hockey pretend that everyone knows the game, then they wonder why the fan base does not increase everywhere teams are placed.
Additionally, hockey does not translate well on television. Everything moves fast in the game and the camera just following the puck around does not show all the action. Skaters are constantly moving, checking, fighting for position and setting up plays. TV does not allow the viewer to see all of that. Thus you hear people say "I dont like hockey, it is boring and they dont score enough".
Lastly, even if hockey did work well on TV, the NHL came off the stike year and put the majority of televised games on a channel few people receive.

Answer 3

I am an avid hockey fan. They don't like hockey because they don't want to give hockey a chance because hockey was created in Canada, not in America. I am a New York Rangers fan and I enjoy watching hockey. It is fast and exciting to watch. Whoever doesn't give this a chance are missing out.

Answer 4

Hockey has got to stop measuring itself against Football and Basketball.

In the USA, these sports have the huge advantage of being major college sports all over the country, which helps cultivate fans back down even into high schools.

Hockey just does not have, and will never have, that going for it coast to coast in the USA.

Hockey makes money, its entertaining, millions do enjoy watching it ... isn't that enough?

Answer 5

Why does this question keep getting asked, plenty of people love hockey, in the states it is not as popular as baseball or football but that is because it isn't an american born sport, if it was then hockey would be the number one sport, but it wasn't. It doesn't mean people don't like it, you probably would never find one canadian (and last I check canada is pretty freaking big) that didn't like hockey.

Answer 6

I love hockey but I grew up going to games and dated many a hockey player.

I think most people watch hockey on TV and just get over it. Its not like baseball or football that it works on TV well. Hockey is too fast to watch and fall in love with on TV. You have to be there, feel the cold on your cheek, cheer for the fights and hold your breath till the last second of the last period.

Answer 7

Gary Bettman established markets in US cities that cannot support hockey franchises. There are several teams in the United States that have strong hockey followings, besides Detroit, Chicago, New York (Rangers), and Boston, there is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. These cities are closer to Canada, and most of the cities in the south, like Nashville and Phoenix, aren't even remotely hockey towns.

And the lockout was suicide.

Answer 8

Nobody like the millions of people who watch?

The main problem is exposure. People who have watched hockey and know the rules at least somewhat love the game. Same as any other sport really, but people don't see hockey as much thanks to a lousy TV deal and bad marketing.

Answer 9

I love hockey, I have been playing ice hockey since 2009. It is not that people do not like hokey it is that they are scared of being hurt even though you rarely get hurt. There are a lot of people never try new things so they just have a boring life.

Answer 10

I'm black and lived he first six years of my life in georgia. I never paid real attention to the thrashers, you know why? beacuse i didn't know the existed. The one sports team i knew existed was the Atlanta falcons, a football team. football was cool and all but all i wanted to do was play hockey. I asked my dad for a hockey stick but he checked the sports store and said they had none. Then i moved to Maryland. there my cousin and the others kids around me introduced me to soccer (dc united) and basketball ( the washington wizards). Also i eventually found out about the Washington nationals from a few baseball guys. As a kid, from ages 7-13, i played all three of these sports at different times. (i knew about the baltimore ravens but at least i knew football wasn't for me) It wasn't until I moved from the area in maryland i was to a different area in maryland, which was populated by mostly whites and mixed among them a few that played hockey, when i finally skated for the first time. kids had ice skating parties and even a school skate night. After my best friend who came from a hockey family introduced me to street hockey, my dad bought me stick of my own for the first time. I started watching hockey on tv because the guys at school, whether they played hockey or not would talk about the games. one of my earliest hockey memories is how hyped everyone at school was for the caps v mtl playoff series in 2010 or something. My mom wouldn't let us watch tv during the weekdays but she made an exception for hockey games,and before she did that,i would sneak in hockey games while always keeping an on my bedroom or basement door. I really wanted to play, but i couldn't, it was too expensive, as a 13 year old starting hockey there was no learn to play hockey program that gave kids my age free gear, luckily i had a nice canadian family give me some after the mother saw me playing in my rollerblades without even a net to shoot on. My point is, i would have never been exposed to hockey if it wasn't for the area i lived in. The nhl first needs to expand the league that typically don't follow the nhl by doing school visits, community nights, free signings, building arenas etc. and then provide free gear to the families that want to play. registration is expensive enough. even though this all may be too expensive and not possible, that would be the perfect way for the nhl to expand. where ever exposure to hockey projects are planted, they do extremely well like the one in fort dupont in dc (started by a black man in a black community not funded by the nhl, however now, the caps have brough a lot of attention to it, making donations, giving them the old verizon center boards, etc.). the nhl just makes it seem like they want to expand, they really just want to look like good people and make more money